Alternate Ending: The Witch's Familiar
by TheMiner'sCanary
Summary: For something that had never been done before, the integration of a human mind into a dalek's world ending rather smoothly...too smoothly, for my liking. Here's what I would have loved to see at the end of The Witch's Familiar


The Clara-Dalek continued to shout "I AM A DALEK!" after the Doctor asked it to open its case. "Yes, yes I know that, now prove it to me and open up!" he bellowed back. The tin can's screams became whines, pitying yelps of "I am a dalek," and the husk of the dalek opened…to reveal a shaking, pale, sweating Clara. The nerves around her temples had spider-webbed, the dark, jagged patterns clawing outwards from her eyes. A black vein of the stuff pulsed thickly up her neck. Each nerve lined a darkened, blackish streak across her skin, causing her face to resemble a cracked, foreboding chasm. Her skin shad faded from its natural, human-ey pallor to a sickly translucent film. Her cinnamon eyes appeared frantic and glazed, sunken in with exhaustion and despair. "I am human," she spoke, volume dwindling. A simple, 3 word phrase on the edge of defeat was taken over by the harsh echoes of "I AM A DALEK!" Her soft voice a high-pitched pleading, edged with doubt, contrasted with the crackling, computer scream of the dalek shell in which she resided.

"Clara…" the Doctor winced at the sight of her. His Teach, reduced to this. Missy's shocked expression faded within a second of its appearance. She'd seen far worse. "Oopsy," she thought.

The Doctor knelt in front of Clara, examining the connection circuits sticking into the sides of her head. "I…am…" she did not finish audibly, but the dalek voice echoed metallically through the corridor, crushing any sound she mustered.

"You are Clara Oswin Oswald," the Doctor prompted, a sadness creeping into his Scottish burr.

A shallow tear leaked out of her eye, and the ancient timelord raised his boney hand to her face, thumbing it away in a swift stroke. "You are Clara Oswin Oswald, and I am going to get you out of this blasted thing."

Clara's eyes rose to meet his, and the Doctor noticed something in them…something he hadn't remembered noticing ever before…not when she was so happy her eyes inflated, not when she was so angry tears streamed down her porcelain face.

"Eggs…" she croaked, her voice one with the dalek. Missy blinked. The Doctor stared at her.

"Eggs…" she continued...The Doctor's mind scratched the surface of a memory. A memory from a different face.

"Eggs…ter…min…aTE" Her face warped into a determined grin.

"EGGS…TER…MINAAATE!" Her dalek voice rose in pitch, sending a chill down the Doctor's neck. His Clara…

With a sneer, the Clara-Dalek, case open, screamed at the Doctor. _That_ was it. The Doctor had seen acrimony in her eyes. The refined hatred only a dalek could master—in Clara Oswin Oswald's eyes.

She sat immobile, glaring fiercely at the Doctor while screaming her death chant, as he reached to the sides of her head and cleanly snapped off the mental relays. Her voice choked instantly.

Dropping the cables, the Doctor took her face in his hands. "Clara, listen to my voice. I've just pulled you out of the dalek hive mind, Davros' mind, every single dalek in existence on the entirety of Skaro. You'll be confused for a bit, but it'll pass. Just focus on me."

Words stuck in her throat, Clara's eyes brimmed. Her body convulsed against the metal cage, her mind throwing a mad fit. All the passion, anger, destruction, power, exhilaration now cut off suddenly before she'd been able to bask in the glory of—

And then the Doctor realized that wasn't it at all. She wasn't choking on the age-old dalek death-chant…she was actually choking. She seemed to have forgotten how to breathe, how to use her throat, how to expand her ribcage and suck in that precious oxygen humans clung to so vitally…

Bracing her back, he pulled her forward out of the dalek cage, "Breathe, Clara, breathe…" and into a heavy embrace. She leaned down on him, her arms at her sides, him growling lowly into her ear. "Ssshhh you're safe now. Just breathe, Clara. Breathe." He felt tears begin to burn in his eyes, though they quickly dissipated when he felt her gasp a consciousness-preserving breath and beginning to sob into his shoulder.

"Ugh, humans. They're overdramatic. C'mon we need to leave." Missy sighed in irritation.

"Can you walk?" The Doctor backed Clara out of the embrace and peered into her face seriously.

"I can't feel my legs." She replied, still lost in her confusion.

The Doctor examined them, noting the thickened, black veins accumulating in mass webs behind her kneecaps. "You'll be fine once your vascular system cleanses the fluid. As for now, think stilts." And with that, he held out his hands. She took them and steadied herself, finding that it felt just barely over the numb-legs stage of a serious case of pins-and-needles.

Clumsily, she limped along, picking up pace. As they turned into the dalek room, Clara gasped "Legs!" and toppled to the floor. The Doctor prepared to summon the TARDIS on the spot.

"Le…eggs," she repeated drawing out the letters in a slow string.

"EGGS!"

"Yes, I know you're legs are all weird right now but stop your yapping I have a TARDIS to reassemble!" he snapped

"EXTERMINATE!" she screams at no one in particular, breaking down into sobs and grabbing the sites of the dalek-cables in severe confusion.


End file.
